US coaches abroad

There was a thread discussing this aspect of Yanks Abroad at the old sagexile MB, one of the names discussed there (and someone, IIRC, Martin knows/knew) Afshin Ghotbi, seems to be finding great success in the country of his birth and there's some speculation he might be line for the Iran NT manager position.

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Thanks for the article Roosevelt, yes I am the one who knew Afshin Ghotbi in college and we later used to play against one another in various leagues in Los Angeles. It is good to see he is continuing his coaching career and it is a fascinating story about how his job path has taken him back to the country of his birth.

Wasn't this guy's entre to the US national team as something of a computer/stats geek?

If I recall Ghotbi created a computer program to track a player(s) movement during a game and that is what attracted Guus Hiddink's interest in him and he eventually brought Ghotbi in to perform that function for South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.

Now that I think of it, however, Ghotbi may have first done that for Steve Sampson when SS was leading the US team. Ghotbi later worked as Sampson's assistant with the Galaxy before heading back to Korea to work on Dick Advocaat's staff for Korea's runup and participation in World Cup 2006.

I was watching the news on BBC World tonight and there was a story about Ghotbi coaching in Iran. He's definitely making headlines now! He's taken a very interesting career path and his is a name to follow in the coaching world. It also doesn't hurt to have coaches like Hiddink and Advocaat advocating your name.

By the way speaking of US coaches overseas, Octavio Zambrano is still in Moldova.

Jason Higgins (ex-SMU asst coach) at Northern Mariana Islands .

Jurgen Klinsmann has just hired Martin Vasquez to be his assistant at Bayern Munich!

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-...uters&type=lgns

Klinsmann last number 2, Joachim Low is now Germany's national team coach. This is a huge move for Vasquez and makes him along with Bob Bradley the highest profile US coach.

This is big news and a great opportunity for Vasquez. Merengue is right Vasquez has just moved under the microscope which is Bayern Munich. If he does well there, this guy will be almost able to name his next coaching job.

I know Juan Carlos Osorio was an assistant at Manchester City for awhile but I don't recall if he ever was the number 2 guy there and it definitely wasn't with as big of a club as Bayern Munich. Dan Gaspar was for a period of time the goalkeeping coach with Benfica but again that toow asn't as high a profile job as Vasquez will have with Bayern. I agree with the comments about how big a move this is and it does make Vasquez one of, if not the highest profiled coaches in the US and may be what opens up the gates for other US coaches to move abroad.

I don't think Osorio ever was the number 2 guy at Man City. But Vasquez will be the right hand man for Klinsmann at Bayern. This is a great opportunity for him and he'll now have the chance to make a name for himself internationally. Martin Vasquez is a US coach to keep an eye out for in the future. Maybe the first US coach to really make a splash internationally.

Well, here's one we over-looked -- Brent Goulet is in his fourth season as manager of Elversberg in the German third division (see Jeff Carlisle column at espn soccer net).

A few of us old farts will remember Goulet as something of a phenom in the late '80s. He came out of tiny Warner Pacific College in Oregon, received several caps and scored some goals under Gansler, who nevertheless left him off the 1990 WC team somewhat controversally.

He played some indoor, then had stints in England with Bournemouth and Crewe before embarking on a long career (until 2000) in the lower divisions of German football. I remember snipets of his playing career in Germany, where he was a productive scorer albeit a lower levels. And, I have a vague recollection that he stayed in Germany after his playing days. But, I don't recall him getting into coaching, certainly not a coach who has lasted 3+ seasons at one club.

Interesting info thanks for providing it to us. Goulet wouldn't be the only player who found a comfortable life in the foreign country where he played for many years. It is good though to see ex American players taking the move to become a coach even in a foreign country. Although Goulet has lived in Germany for so long now that it likely isn't that foreign to him anymore!

Speaking of German-American connections, anybody know if Thomas Dooley is still involved with the sport after he retired? He was always one of my favorite players to watch with the US.

I'm pretty sure Dooley is living in SoCal. I don't know if he's doing any coaching, but I saw something recently where he was promoting a competitive version of head tennis, a venture I believe he's behind. Maybe not strictly head tennis, but some version of 3v3 played on a court.

Read this morning (I think in a Soccer America newsletter) that Ghotbi looks to have been passed over for the Iranian national team job in favor of Ali Daei.

I read a wire service article which said the Iranian Sports Ministry pressured the Iranian FA not to name Ghotbi the national team coach. Apparently the FA were in favor of him, the Sports Ministry in favor of Ali Daei, Iran's recently retired all time leader in international appearances and goals. So Daei is the new national team coach. Ghotbi remains however the coach at Persepolis, one of the country's two biggest clubs.